So... This is a oneshot about a little adventure Soren and Shinon have, and, just FYI, not a SorenxShinon pairing.
So Ike is really getting fed up with the two of them fighting, and decides to send them on a mission to improve their relationship, but when Soren is kidnapped only one person knows what happened... And that one person (Shinon) is maybe the one person would wouldn't mind killing Soren himself
Enjoy,
ej

"WHAT?" Soren burst out in a very unusual burst of anger. "Surely you are joking Ike," he said, a little calmer. Shinon, his... Ally, didn't look much better.
"Ike, you know we hate each other." The sniper said, not bothering to lower his voice. It was a well-known fact that the two couldn't stand each other. As Shinon would put it: "That man is worst then most sub-humans I know... I mean laugz of course."
Soren, would probably return the favor by saying: "I know many humans, and many laugz, most of which despise me, and the feeling is mutual, but Shinon is a whole other battle when it comes to hate."
If you haven't picked up on it, the two men don't call each other friends.
"We are going to end up killing each other," Shinon continued, lowering his voice, just a bit. Ike waved his hand for silence, which even Shinon didn't break.
"Which is why I think this mission is perfect for you two, you have only two weeks, how hard can it be?" Ike asked, looking at Soren, and giving him a 'You better agree with me' look. Soren sighed and shrugged.
"I guess... But don't you think Mist of someone should be there? You know... In case Shinon tries to stab me in the head with an arrow." Shinon nodded.
"Ditto. I don't trust Soren with any tome... Or any book for that matter." Ike sighed. This was not going as he planned.
"Please, all I'm asking is for you two to spend two weeks in the woods near a town. You don't even need to see each other for the entire day." Soren and Shinon were quiet as they thought it over.
"Fine, when are we leaving? If pretty boy Soren will go I mean." Shinon asked. Soren shrugged.
"When are we leaving?"

*Three days into trip... 11 days to go*
"Please tell me I have an excuse to go shoot someone." Shinon said as Soren walked into the small glade they were camping in. The winter cold had long since set in, and the small fire Shinon had started was doing little to chase away the cold. Soren had gone into the nearby village to see if anything was wrong, and Shinon took the time to go outside and look over his bow and arrows, something that always helped him calm down.
"I wish... But I would have blasted them to bits with elwind or elfire by now... You could always clean up the little bits left of course." Soren said, looking for a place to sit. Shinon snorted and muttered something under his breath. Soren ignored the comfort that their tent (yes, one tent. By this point, Shinon was sure Ike intended for neither of them to return), and opted to sit outside just to annoy Shinon.
"Could you move your quiver?" Soren asked, looking at the rock next to Shinon.
"Eh? What for?" Shinon asked, not even glancing up from his bowstring.
"So I can sit down." Was Shinon always this dumb and agravating, or was it just having no one to talk to for three days that made him this annoying? Thinking it over, Soren was pretty sure Shinon was always this dumb and annoying, but today he was especially so.
"Can't you sit somewhere else? Like that log over there." Shinon guestered with his right hand to a wet log next to the fire. One side was soaking wet, the other was burnt.
"No..." Shinon sighed, he knew he was not going to get rid of the mage, nor was he, despite how much he wanted to, going to kill him. Ike would probably kill him if anything happened to Soren. Shinon stood up and grabbed his quiver.
"I'm going into town. I probably won't be back untill tomorrow." Shinon called behind him. Which ment his was probably going to get drunk in the local bar. Soren knew Shinon had a drinking problem, heck, every single mercenary did, but only Rolf seemed to care. Gatrie was normally just as drunk as Shinon, so he didn't really care. Soren nodded and sat down on the rock, peacfully reading a book.

*The next day... 10 days left*
Hangovers sucked. Hangovers in the summer really sucked. Hangovers in the winter when the bar owner must have kicked you out because you're sleeping under a tree really, really, really sucked.
"Great goddess... Ug, since when did my head hurt so bad? And since when did I fall asleep on roads?" Shinon asked himself, groaning softly as he picked himself off the ground. He was alright- besides his huge headache and the lack of feeling in his arms and legs- but that would pass. What he needed to do now was get back to camp and eat something... Try to get rid of the hangover...
Shinon wasn't thinking sraight but he managed to get to camp in good time, which was two hours later (it normally took thirty minutes), and knew, even in his hammered state that something was wrong. First, no fire. Which, by itself wouldn't have meant much, but with bits of cloth in the breeze, no sign of their tent, and more importantly (techniclly, although Shinon might not have noticed had it been the lack of a glare), no Soren. Shinon managed to throw off most of the hangover, knocking an arrow and lowering himself so he wasn't as big of a target, in case whoever did this was still around.
Shinon was pretty sure Soren hadn't put up much of a fight. He might have been sleeping, or just reading, but the lack of blood (Shinon had seen first hand what elwind could do, and it was not pretty), and the fact that the spare rope for the tent was gone, Shinon was also pretty sure Soren was alive. For now.
Shinon groaned and sat down on the rock he had sat on just the day before. If only he could think a little better... Shinon knew that there was a stream nearby, and started to head towards it; he needed to clear his head off.

*Soren... 10 days left*
Soren's first thought was, ironiclly, nearly the same as Shinon's: 'Why does my head hurt so bad? And where am I?' He reached a hand up to feel some dried blood, then noticed another thing: he couldn't see. For a split second Soren thought he had gone blind for some reason, then he felt his hand brush some cloth tied to his head. Of course. He could remember bits of what had happened, it had been quick, his wind tome, heck, any tome, hadn't been near him. He cursed himself for being such and idiot and received a sharp blow to the head. Great, he wasn't alone.
"Stay quiet, whelp." Soren resisted the urge to talk back, that would probably get him killed, and tried to hear what was going on. Horse hooves, and the crunch of snow. He was sitting on a bench or something of the like, so he guessed (correctly) that he was in a wagon full of, the most likely possiblity, bandits. Go figure, instead of fighting them and getting rid of the town's bandits, Soren managed to get himself captured by the bandits. Well, they did get rid of the bandits at any rate, but, more importantly, what were they going to do to Soren?
And how was he going to escape? Because Soren knew he was not about to stay with the bandit group. His first choice was to try to find a time to run away, but then the idea was crushed by other factors. WHo would help him, a Branded, with an entire group of bandits after him? And how was he going to escape? He was no body builder, and while he was slightly musclar from all of the books he handled, he couldn't even use the lightest sword the mercenary group could get, he used light tomes for a reason.
The next choice was to wait it out and see what would happen. Chances were, they would try to ransom him to Ike. Yes, Soren thought, that was the most likely option. After all, killnig him would have made carrying him a waste of time, and Ike would want revenge. Also, Ike was well known for having friends in high, no, very high, places, and everyone knew about the bond Soren shared with Ike, being childhood friends, and how Soren, the king of the cold shoulder, had sworn absolute loyalty to Ike. Soren let out a deep breath to try to clam himself. Neverless, he forced his brain to think up of other things that could happen.
The third idea was that Shinon, Shinon of all people, would come to rescue him. Against his wishes, Soren let out a small laugh, recieving a blow to the head. This was going to cause loss of brain cells, Soren thought biterly, they had elwind comming for them, of elthunder, the later being more painful (at least, it looked more painful). Shinon rescueing Soren... The chances were better that Boyd was gay and Rolf had a crush on Ike for goddess' sake! Shinon hate- no, loathed Soren to the last fabric on his clothes. In fact, Soren thought, if the bandits were about to push Soren off a cliff Shinon would probably try to stop them... Just so he could push Soren off himself.
Soren sighed again, glad he hadn't recieved another blow, and prepared to wait it out.

*Later that day...*
"We make camp here!" Soren assmued that was the leader. He had a deep voice, like Ike's, but it had none of the warm sound Soren was used to. More of a cold wind that warned you of a blizzard. Some of the bandits muttered things, and Soren could hear a few of them.
"We better stay put..."
"Storm comming in..."
"I hope we don't have to share a tent with the prisoner." Soren stopped being able to hear anything as a strong wind blew through the clearing, chillnig Soren and taking away the words of the bandits. He sighed. Being stuck with Shinon for a week was one thing, but being kidnapped by bandits outdone even that.

*That night...*
Shinon was cold, hungry, and, most importantly, cold and wet. That's what happens after six hours of running/jogging through cold snow, wet slush, and not stopping except for thirty minutes when Shinon had to find a way across a river. Sure, the easy way was through the small shallow part, but the river had ice chunks, and Shinon didn't feel like getting hypothermia, or frostbite. Those were about as high as spending his life with Soren or Ike on his list of things Not-To-Do. Well, maybe a little lower.
Anyway, Shinon was glad when the darkness started to set in, giving him an excuse to stop his trek, and head towards the nearest village. With, ironiclly enough, was about two miles away from his current location (at the time).
So, there he was, cold and hungry, trying to get himself a room at the inn.
"A room for one, one night, I'm not gonig to be eating in the morning." The innkeeped raised an eyebrow at the strange request, but didn't say anything. After all, any costomer was rare enough in the roads around here.
"Is that all sir?" The man asked. Shinon shrugged, then asked,
"Are there any good-" he cut himself off.
"Yes sir?" The man asked. Shinon shook his head 'no'. The last thing he needed was a hangover while he was tracking the stupid mage (or Soren, depending on how you know him). He nodded to the man and made his way up to his room. He was going to have an early sleep, so he could wake up with an early start.

*That morning... 9 days left*
Shinon groaned, trying to brush some sleep out of his eyes. He had fallen asleep in everything but his cape and gloves, opting for warmth rather then comfort. He was cold, he must have kicked the covers off, and forced his eyes open, although the sun was blinding him. It was brighter then normal, even though the room had no blinds to cover the windows (which were strangely made of glass). He looked out the window while rubbing one eye. It looked like a nice day out... Even the fine cover of snow seemed to add to the small town. Wait, snow? Shinon was awake in seconds, running around his rented room, trying to grab all of his things and nearly put his left glove on his right hand.
Cursing himself, (and the weather), he ran out of the room, not closing the door behind him, and ran out of the inn, startling those who were already up.
He had lots of ground to cover, and there was no tracks left. Shinon's mind was racing, he was going to need back-up and he knew just who could give it. Of course, if he wasn't off serving his king....

*Soren...*
Soren woke up cold, hungry, and wet from the snow. Being left outside in the snow to sleep will do that to you, and, on top of all of that, he was cranky. He had gone on this stupid mission with the even stupider sniper Shinon, and had gotten kidanpped. Tell me how that works with logic, and for Soren's very logical mind, this was way out of left field (not really, seeing as there is no baseball in Fire Emblem...).
"You're up." A tough voice. Gruff. Soren felt himself being forced to his feet. His eyes were half shut from sleep, and he couldn't see who was talking to him. Soren's eyes snapped open as he felt a dagger being slash across his cheek.
"Hm... So you're Soren, Ike's second in comand." Soren didn't say anything, his eyesite felt fuzzy, seeing his blood spill onto the white snow. "Come on men, let's move!" The leader shouted, grabbing Soren roughly and forcing him to walk over to the wagon.
"I bet you want to sit in there and be all warm, don't you? Ha, you can walk outside!" The bandit didn't hear Soren's teeth being ground, nor did he see the anger in Soren's eyes. He was very lucky Soren didn't have a tome with him.
Soren didn't get anything to cover his wound either, so it left a bleeding trail on the pale, glistening white snow. This was not a good week for Soren.
Talk about understatement of the year.

*Soren... Later that day... 9 days left*
Soren was colder, hungrier, and in a worse mood then he had ever been in about two years. He shivered for what must have been the hundreth time in the past ten minutes as the bandits talked about his fate. Currently they were either going to put him up for ransom, or they were just going to kill him.
Soren, needless to say, was hoping they would put him up for ransom.
"But then...." The wind had picked up again and Soren could only catch bits and pieces of their conversation. Soren hoped they would choose soon, because, at the rate the temperature was dropping, they'd be ransoming a frozen Soren. Because, ransom was the only logical option. Killing him would make all of their efforts (well, what little ones they had made) pointless.
The only thing with bandits is that they were probably the most illogical people on the planet. Besides Shinon, but he was just an idiot no matter what. Soren sighed and tried to get more comfortable in the snow. Needless to say, it was a vain attempt.
A few hours later they had come to a decision. The snow had stopped falling, and the wind was all but gone. Heck, the sun was even out, warming Soren up. But inside, he was still cold. Because he did not like the decision the bandits had come to.
"Chop his head off!" The only thing now they had to pick was just how to kill him. This was maybe the only time in his life Soren wished he could just have his head chopped off and be done with it. The other choice was slow death by chopping off all his limbs and leaving him in the snow.
"No, arg!" Soren blinked in confusion. Since when did arrows errupt out of people's chest's. Never. Only one person could get that close to a bandit camp. And only one peron knew Soren had been kidnapped.
"Archer!" A bandit shouted. Soren smiled grimly to himself. Now all he had to do was hope Shinon didn't shot him, on purpose, seeing as the marksman was so good he'd never hit Soren on accident.
Suddenly, someone grabbed Soren and pulled him into the forest.
"Hawk!" Another shouted, leaving Soren even more confused. Did Shinon have a killed hawk or something? Soren was wondering why the bandits wre dragging him outside of the forest (where Shinon could get a better shot), when he saw a sudden drop.
Great. Soren couldn't fly anymore then he could handle Ike's sword.

*Ike... 1 day overdue*
"WHERE ARE THOSE TWO?" Ike shouted as Mia brought back another report that neither Soren or Shinon had been seen nearby. Mia winced.

"Um... I'm not sure..." Now would be the time to have Soren around. Normally Mia would ahve just said, 'Ask Soren' but in this case that would be pointless. Ike sighed, running a hand through his hair.
"Yeah... Get out please." Ike said. "Tell everyone I'm going to look for them..." Ike had heard the rumors. Heck, Boyd nearly started a poll and betting booth on the results when the two men came back (Oscar stopped him), and most of the people (I.E, Gatrie, Rolf, Mist, and Mia) had said that one man would be hurt/dead/critically injured.
Ike had been thinking things over, and he swore never to let Shinon and Soren go on another mission together, alone. It was hazardous for team moral, and Ike's mental well-being.

*Shinon.... 2 days overdue*
"So..." Shinon and Soren had stopped right outside of camp. It had been a hecktic week an a half, mainly because Soren had a broken leg frmo the fall. Janaff (who was the reason the bandits had cried out 'hawk') hadn't been able to slow down Soren's descent enough. He had soon left, saying that he was glad to help out.

"Yes?" Soren said, curiously. They had gotten along as best as they could manage the past few days and, needless to say, Soren was happy he was not dead.

"We never mention this to anyone." Soren nodded.

"Agreed. And we go back to hating each other." The mage added. Shinon shrugged.

"Your grave." He said. Soren shuddered.

"Yeah... Well... You helped me avoid an early death. Ike probably would have been furious in his after-life." Shinon chuckled as a small, green-haired boy hit him with enough force to push him backwards a ways.

"SHINON!" Rolf shouted, hugging Shinon. Shinon blushed and detached the boy and sent him back to camp.

"Yeah... I'll be there in a second." He told the boy. Rolf nodded happily and ran off. Shinon was about to follow when Soren said,

"Shinon?" The snipper stopped. "Thank you." Shinon didn't say anything, even if he heard.
Both men walked back to camp. They told nobody of the incident.

Ok, I'm sorry its so messed up, my computer hates me and refuses to format it the right way.

And please, don't flame me for having Soren be saved (obviously) from falling off a cliff. I'll explain. The hawk that the bandits saw was Janaff, who Shinon called and asked if he could help out (don't ask, its a story), and Janaff saved Soren. Ok?

Anyway, review!

ej